


Tickled Pink

by merelypassingtime



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers Movie Night, Budapest, Established Relationship, Light Angst, M/M, Non-Consensual Tickling, There's A Tag For That, Tickling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:01:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25236613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merelypassingtime/pseuds/merelypassingtime
Summary: Bucky thought his secret was safely buried in the past, but one movie night it comes back to haunt him.Luckily, Clint always has his back.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Clint Barton
Comments: 15
Kudos: 54





	Tickled Pink

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much to darkbuckybarnesanon for beta reading this for me!

If you thought about it long enough, there actually were some benefits to outliving just about everyone you’d ever known, even if Bucky’s therapist called that sort of thinking ‘counterproductive’ and ‘self-flagellating’.

The biggest advantage he’d found was that the only person in a position to recall all the embarrassing shit from his childhood was Steve, and Bucky trusted Steve with his life.

As it turned out, that was not the same thing as being able to trust him with his secrets.

It started innocently enough, when the weekly ‘team building exercise’ once again turned into a movie night, despite Tony lobbying hard for karaoke and Sam trying to talk everyone into a poker tournament. 

Bucky was glad that the movie had won. Even after several months, he still found sitting together in a dimly lit room was about as much social interaction as he was comfortable with. It was starting to look like that was always going to be true, and that his days of dancing and carousing were just another thing the Winter Soldier had killed.

Not that he minded too much. Dancing had been fun, but it couldn’t hold a candle to the quiet, domestic happiness of these evenings, particularly since he had started dating Clint. 

Now, sitting on the couch that had become his, he nursed a beer mostly to hide his sappy grin as he watched his boyfriend sitting on the floor while Wanda painted his toenails purple.

“Awesome!” Clint said after the last coat, wiggling his toes.

Wanda grabbed his foot, stilling it. “No moving! You’ll smudge them.”

From the other corner of the room, Natasha piped up, “I wouldn’t touch his feet like that.”

“Why?” Tony demanded. 

They were more than halfway through the movie and Tony was starting to edge from ‘a little loose’ to ‘buzzed’. It only really showed in the volume of his voice as he craned around to look at Clint over the top of his glasses. “Something we should know about Merida there? Is he the one who’s been searching for foot pictures?”

Before Clint could reply, Sam did. “You track our searches?!”

Heads turned towards Sam, and Bucky saw the exact second that he realized he’d made a mistake.

“No, that’s not what I meant. I haven’t been googling feet,” Sam backpedaled even as the laughter started.

Tony leaned only to put a hand on Sam’s shoulder and said, “No need to explain, there’s no judgement here.”

“There might be a little bit of judgement,” Bucky muttered into his beer, setting off another round of snorts.

Natasha just rolled her eyes and talked over the snickering. “No, Clint is just really ticklish. You don’t want to get kicked in the face accidentally.”

“That was one time!” Clint said.

“You almost broke my nose.”

“But I didn’t.”

“Wait,” Wanda said. “Why were you tickling him in the first place?”

“Budapest,” Natasha and Clint answered in unison.

“Of course, I don’t know why I bother asking,” Wanda said.

Steve finally looked away from the movie. “You know, I’ve read the reports from Budapest, and they don’t mention any of the things you guys claim happen there.”

“Official reports,” Clint said, a world of scorn in his voice.

“Yeah,” Natasha agreed. “If you could trust those, I’d have known you were ticklish from your personal file and not nearly gotten my nose broken.”

“Why would that be in my personal file?”

“As a tactical weakness, clearly.”

Clint rolled his eyes, but Steve nodded seriously. “That’s true, it is. When we were kids the only way I could win fights with Bucky was by tickling him.”

There was a moment of dead silence while everyone’s head turned from Steve to Bucky and Bucky stared daggers at Steve. 

He was never trusting anyone ever again.

Too carefully, as if he was on the edge of laughter, Tony asked, “Barnes is ticklish?”

“Incredibly so,” Steve answered earnestly, and Bucky couldn’t decide if he was really that oblivious or just pretending to be. “All I had to do was reach for his sides and he’d just about fall over laughing.”

“Is that so?” Tony asked, turning his gaze back to Bucky.

“No,” Bucky said, returning the look with his coldest Winter Soldier glare.

Tony only grinned back because he had no survival instinct, particularly when he was drinking. “Are you sure?

“I think that’s a bad plan, man,” Rhodey interjected.

“Aw, but Platypus, where’s your spirit of scientific inquiry?”

“Sorry, I must’ve left it at home when I was making sure to pack enough common sense for both of us.”

“Yeah,” Sam said. “I’m thinking you’d get a lot worse than a kick in the face if you tried to find out.”

Bucky turned his glare up a notch to the same look that had once caused a minion he’d been fighting to panic and run headlong into a parked van, knocking himself out. 

Tony, however, only rolled his eyes. Damned jaded superheroes.

“You guys ruin all my fun.”

Rhodey said, “You mean we save your life.”

“Same difference.”

When Nastasha tilted her head and gave him a look that said, ‘Really?’ Tony sighed. “Fine. I won’t try tickling the deadly assassin.”

Bucky didn’t relax though, he knew Tony too well.

Sure enough, Tony wasn’t about to give up. “Besides, it’s Oh, Captain, my Captain over there who has all the super strength and the Bucky tickling experience.”

For a horrible second Steve looked like he was considering the idea, and Bucky was planning escape routes when Clint, who had been strangely quiet, and said firmly, “No.”

“Why?” Tony asked. “Wanna tickle your boytoy yourself?”

“No, I’m not gonna assault Bucky, and I’m not gonna let any of you do it either.”

“Assault?” Tony spluttered. “Geesh, it’s just a bit of harmless fun!”

“Is it? Was it harmless fun when my brother held me down and tickled me until I threw up? More than once.”

Tony blanched at that. “Look, that’s not what I was saying-

Clint cut him off. “No, that is exactly what you’re saying. That we abuse Bucky’s trust to make him feel helpless. Now, I can’t say for sure, but I’m pretty sure everyone in this room has been there at least once, and knows how much it sucks.”

He said it gently, sounding sad and tired, but several people flinched as if he’d shouted.

It amazed Bucky that even his closest friends could forget just how much intelligence Clint hid behind his innocent blue eyes and wide, goofy smiles. Everytime he let a hint of it out, Bucky loved him even more. 

Steve cleared his throat into the heavy silence that followed. “Well, there you are. Maybe we should get back to the movie.”

“I think I’ve lost the plot line a bit,” Sam said a little too quickly. “Maybe we can go back a bit?”

The tension evaporated as several people moved around. Some stretched, as others headed to get snacks or use the bathroom.

In the shuffle, Bucky caught Clint’s eye and signed, _I love you._

Clint grinned and winked back at him, then moved to stand up from the floor. “I’m gonna grab another drink, anyone else need one?” 

As he started towards the bar, walking gingerly on the heels of his feet to protect his drying toenails, he threw Tony a pointed look. “Tony? Need a water or something?” 

“Sure,” Tony replied, with only a ghost of his usual smirk. “That might be for the best.”

Bucky heard the guilt behind that and mentally bet that both he and Clint would be getting upgraded weapons in the next few days. It wasn’t really necessary, but if it made Tony feel better, Bucky wouldn’t begrudge him. 

He downed the last of his beer, so he could follow Clint to the bar area, subtly trying to stay near enough to catch him if he fell while trying to walk with wet toenails.

Eventually, they all settled back down, and skipped back a little in the movie before restarting it. As it began, Bucky leaned into Clint, sure no one would dare tease them for too much PDA tonight. In fact, he was pretty sure they had a free pass on teasing for a couple of days at least.

Even so, Bucky wasn’t about to admit he’d been the one who’d searched for foot pictures.

It had only been because he needed new shoes.

Well, mostly.


End file.
